76 
SELBORNE SOCIETY NOTICES. 
[Note. — All Announcements with regard to Future Meetings ok 
the Central Society or Branches will be found together at the 
END OF THESE NOTICES.] 
New Members. —Central Society. — At the Council Meeting on March 27, 
the following were elected members: Miss E. M. Coombs', H. W. Dickens, 
Esq. ; George W. Gibson. Esq. ; Herbert S. Jubb, Esq. ; F. Edell Mainland, 
Esq. ; S. E. Tench, Esq. ; Miss M. W. Thornton ; E. NewallTuck, Esq. ; John 
B. Ball, Esq. ; Admiral Henry C. St. John; the Rev. I. Frome Wilkinson. 
Abinger and Shere Branch. — The Rev. P. A. Micklem. 
Birmingham Branch. — Lady C'navasse ; Arthur Wallis, Esq. 
Ealing Branch. — J. M. Jacobs, Esq. 
Hampstead Branch. — Miss E. Baker; Miss Cates; T. Corby, Esq. ; Mrs. 
Gairdner ; H. Goodchild, Esq, ; Griffith Humphreys, Esq. ; Miss Monk ; Miss 
Smith ; A. J. Tallent, Esq. 
Subscriptions. — The Council has pleasure in acknowledging subscriptions 
of greater value than 5s. from the following members: Mrs. A. Jones, £1 is. ; 
Mrs. Phillips, 10s. 6d ; F. C. Stewart, Esq, 10s. ; Mrs. R. F. Sturge, 10s. ; 
Miss F. A. Gordon, 7s. 6d. ; H. B. Lacey, Esq., 7s. 6d. ; W. Percival Westell, 
Esq., 7s. 6d. ; and donations from Mrs. Hyde Clark, 10s. ; S. E. Tench, Esq., 
2s. 6d. The Committee of the Hampstead Branch has pleasure in acknowledg- 
ing a subscription of greater value than 5s. from the following member : E. J. 
Burr, Esq., £1 is. 
Library. — The Honorary Librarian will attend at 20, Hanover Square, from 
6 p.m. to 6.30 p.m., on the evenings of April 16, and May 14, for the purpose 
of issuing books to Members. 
WINTER MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
Saturday , February 17. — In spite of most inclement weather a good number 
of Selbornians assembled to visit Westminster School, by kind permission of 
Dr. Gow, the Headmaster. Mr. George Avenell read an interesting and highly 
instructive paper on the history of the school and its buildings. The oldest 
portion is undoubted the great school-room, called “Up-School,” which was 
originally the monks’ dormitory and dates from the eleventh century. It was 
converted to its present purpose in 1591. It has been considerably damaged 
architecturally by the work of a restorer who had it in hand rather more than a 
hundred years ago and who cased a good deal of it in brick, though there still 
remain traces of eleventh and twelfth century work. The College Hall is now 
the school dining-room : its walls date from the period of Abbot Litlington, who 
added the building to the monastery near the end of the fourteenth century as 
the Abbot’s refectory. The roof is of arched beams on corbels, and dates, with 
the interior work generally, from about 1561. Noteworthy are some heavy 
tables of chestnut (?) made, according to tradition, from wreckage of the 
Spanish Armada. The present dormitory only dates from 1733. Ashburr.bam 
House, now the school library, is for the most part the work of Inigo Jones. 
Records prove that a school existed on this site long antecedent to Eliza- 
bethan times. Henry VIII. laid the foundation of the present institution by 
entrusting the then monastic school to the care of the Dean and Chapter of 
Westminster ; but it is with Elizabeth that the school’s history really begins, and 
in its official parlance she is known as “ Our Foundress and Benefactress.” She 
provided for its government by connecting it with the Abbey, by which, except 
during the Commonwealth, it was administered until some forty years ago, when 
the management was handed over to a body of fifteen governors. 
Two interesting old customs are still maintained, the annual Latin Play, 
which has been given almost without interruption since Elizabethan days, and 
tossing the pancake on Shrove Tuesday. Many Westminster boys have become 
famous, among whom may be mentioned Ben Jonson, Sir Christopher Wren, 
